Composition & Aesthetics

This week I have to talk about either composition or aesthetics of photography. I decided to look into aesthetics, because I had no idea what it meant. Upon further investigation, I discovered that it is basically the beauty of a picture, and how that connects to the viewer's emotions. So, when i studied aesthetics this week, I found I was simply learning how to take a beautiful picture, which is very important for me to know.
I found an essay by Alain Briot at www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/aesthetics-1.shtml that really helped me, not just to understand aesthetics but to apply to my photography. The trick to great aesthetics in a photograph is seeing like a camera. We as humans do not see as our camera sees, which seems very obvious but accounts for why I am constantly frustrated that the beauty i see in front of me is not translating into my photographs. One trick that I learned from this essay is to either shoot through my viewfinder or close one eye. I like shooting through my viewfinder but I think that I will experiment with closing one eye, also.
I also learned from this essay that it is extremely important to recreate depth to create a beautiful picture. This can be done by making sure there is both a foreground and a background in the picture, or to play with overlapping, as we perceive that an object overlapping another is closer to us, creating depth in the photo. Also, there should only be one main focus of the picture, that way there is only one place which the viewer's eye is drawn to and the photo is simpler and easier to understand.
I'm now off to go and use some of the techniques that I have learned this week...